“About four miles,” Captain Godfree answered. “Now see how close a guess I have made. We are running six miles an hour, and you can tell by looking at your watch now and when we have the light abeam.” Darker grew the sky and brighter gleamed the lights on shore. There came a blinding flash of lightning, followed instantly by such a pour of rain as falls only in a tropical shower. A moment later there was a grating and grinding and crunching beneath their feet, and the ship stopped with a jar that threw them all against the bridge’s rail. The propeller continued to revolve, but the vessel was stationary. Dick did not know what it meant, but he saw by the countenances of his companions that something had happened. Not a soul moved for a second or two, but the seconds seemed like half-hours. Then the captain sprang to the signal dial. “Blast my eyes!” he shouted. “I’ve put the ship aground!” “Stop her! Back her!” he signaled; and the propeller first stopped, then began to reverse. But the ship’s only answer was to begin pounding against the rocks. She was hard and fast on a reef. Everything was in confusion in a moment. The captain was shouting orders, men were rushing about the decks, the rain continued to pour, lightning flashed, and thunder seemed to roll across the water and echo a dozen times among the mountains. To add to the weirdness of the scene, a number of bright lights sprang up along the shore; some down on the beach, others apparently up in the hills. Dick was soaked with the rain, but he did not know it. The violent pounding of the ship made standing uncertain, and he wound his arm around one of the iron stanchions. “I’m sorry for Captain Godfree,” he said to himself, “but I wouldn’t have missed this for a thousand dollars! Just this scene alone is good for two or three columns. Those must be tar barrels they’re burning on shore for signals; and there are hundreds of people running about them, looking in that light like naked savages on a cannibal island. Talk about shipwreck scenes in the theatre! They’re nothing compared with the reality.” Dick was alone on the bridge now. All the officers were on deck. He heard the captain rapidly issuing orders. “Lower away the port quarterboat, Mr. Gran!” “Sound the wells, Mr. Turner!” “Quartermaster, heave the lead!” “This is something for me to keep an eye on,” Dick thought. “I’ll have a chance to see exactly what they do when a steamship is run on a reef.” At that moment Mr. Maloney sprang up the iron ladder and seized Dick by the arm. “Don’t stay up here!” he shouted; nothing less than a shout could have been heard in that furious din. “She’s liable to pound the masts out of herself at any minute, and these iron masts will smash everything when they fall. You’ll be safer in the cabin.” Dick had no idea of hiding himself in the cabin, but he went down as far as the deck, where he almost ran against Captain Godfree.